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I saw a headline earlier today that was apparently taken from Ange Postecoglou’s press conference before the game away to St Johnstone tomorrow, and it immediately made me suspicious.

“We don’t have a £50 or £60 million striker to compete in Europe says Postecoglou” was the exact headline in question.

I thought that to be strange, as it would go against everything the manager has just said recently about competing in Europe and that the differences in finances isn’t an excuse that he would use.

So, I decided to watch the full press conference, as I was going to do anyway, but pay extra attention to hear when part this came up.

As expected, the headline was totally twisted to suit a certain narrative, that Ange was saying Celtic can’t compete in Europe due to the gulf in finances of the other teams in our group.

He didn’t say this at all, and in fact, he wasn’t even talking about the Champions League, in fact, he was answering a set of questions from a female reporter, who was referencing our recent league performances in particular, asking if Ange feels we have stepped off the gas “mainly in domestic games” and asked Ange if he was worried that we were making so many chances but not taking enough of them, i.e in the Motherwell game which had just been discussed.

Ange answered:

“No, because that’s why people, clubs spend 50/60 million dollars on players to do that, that’s the hardest part of the game.”

“We’re not going to be a club that spends 50 or 60 million to bring in a player to score goals.”

“We’re gonna be a club that creates chances, and you know, sometimes, it hits the post and it goes out, other times it hits the post and goes in, and that’ the fine lines.”

“Ultimately what I’m looking at, is creating opportunities that’s what’s gotten us to this space and will continue to take us forward.”

“Our game model is based around creating opportunities and being a dominant team and that’s the most important thing.”

“If that doesn’t happen, that would be a concern for me.”

So, as you can read, nowhere does he say anything about not being able to compete in Europe because we don’t have a 50 or 60 million pound striker, he doesn’t even mention the word “compete” or “In Europe” in the entire answer!

Celtic supporters will be able to see what’s going on here. Our rivals were humiliated a few weeks back because Van Bronckhorst said his side can’t compete in the Champions League because of the gulf in finances, while Ange was on video saying that isn’t an excuse.

Certain parts of the media are trying to catch Ange out, or even write fake headlines to make out he has said this to try and even the score.

It isn’t going to work.